Sara looked back at David, absolute terror in her eyes. “I can attack his security, but he’ll still have one left. If we try to Digivolve or play another Digimon, the turn passes to him. With no security left, all he has to do is attack. No blockers to stop him. We lost…”
Sara was facing off against her former boss in a heated card battle. A few days prior, Sara found out the only reason she ended up in the world of Digimon Liberator was because her commanding officer was trying to cover up a failed coup attempt. We tried to track him down and confront him, but unfortunately, he got to us first! Turns out the Gargomon that helped Sara uncover the truth a few days ago was later hunted down by the commander. With his last words, Gargomon said that the commander was too late. Sara already knew the truth and that she was going to report him to her elders. For what it’s worth, the Gargomon was right. Sara had every intention of going home and blowing the lid off the whole thing. The problem? Sara doesn’t have the proper spells to find her way home, so she needed to find the commander first.
“Well, at least if I’m trapped in this world, I’ll take pride in being the only survivor of this whole debacle” The commander gloated.
Although Sara’s deck was being used, I was watching the whole thing from the D-Storage. “David! Sara! There is only one way out of this. We have no choice but to offer him the spell Magna showed us! Commander, spare us and we will get you home!”
Both Sara and David looked down at the box I was being stored in. Magna hadn’t taught us any spell. In fact, we were banking on the idea that the commander had one. Ya see, when it comes to portals, some spells open to a random universe, while others open to a specific universe. We were hoping that the commander had a spell that directly linked to his world. But, since he said, “trapped in this world”, I figured he used the random spell and didn’t know his way back. I bluffed, hoping we could trick him into agreeing to a draw. A double forfeit!
“You know a direct path back?” He asked.
“Grizzly! David! No! I would rather be deleted then let him get away with his actions.” Sara apparently caught on to my bluff and was chiming in.
“If he deletes you, he gets to go free anyways. Look. I know a Wizardmon. He studies multiple realities. He was able to identify Sara’s wavelengths and was able to track down a direct portal to her world. To your world…” David joined in on the lie.
The commander bought the ruse. The match was declared forfeit by both parties and officially was a draw. Sara returned to the D-Storage, and the commanding officer left the NPC body he had taken over. Like Sara, he had reverted to a lower level, just not as far as Sara had. Instead of being a level 3, Bulucomon, he was a Level 4, Paledramon. Without hesitation, I screeched on top of my lungs as David used his Unique Signal to materialize me as a Gazimon and then a Deltamon. I used my massive jaws to clamp down on the commander, troughing him into a nearby wall. I released a beam of light, my Triplex Force attack, and then David tossed a blank card, capturing the commander.
We logged out of Liberator seconds later. Capture Cards and Unique Signals are only allowed for members of the Debugging team in Liberator. A complete outsider like the Kid shouldn’t have one. Luckily, we know a group of hackers. That being said, we had to take every step we could to avoid detection.
A few hours later, we sat in the library that was Magna’s room at the Megalithic Mainframe. We explained how we essentially cheated to get a hold of the commander. Ethical or not, it was all for nothing if we couldn’t get back to the elders and turn him in. He may have been trapped in a card, but Sara was just as trapped with no way home.
“Trapped? Sara isn’t trapped here. Of course I can get her home.” Magna chuckled. “All I have to do is use this card as a medium. It will take me approximately an hour to prepare, but I can get her home tonight.”
“Seriously?” I groaned. “Why didn’t you tell us it would be that easy?”
Magna raised an eyebrow. “For the spell to work I need both Sara and this card. How was I supposed to know you three would pull such a stunt. Just how did you and David get your hands on capture cards to begin with? Those are illegal for normal players.”
‘Okay, first of all, the Kid and I aren’t normal players. We technically aren’t even supposed to be in Liberator. Second of all, how do you think we got them? The same way we get all our hacked stuff. We asked Blu for it. And third of all, it’s not like we were the bad guys. We used it to trap a criminal.”
“Yes yes yes. Hackers can follow a code of honor, and those who crack codes do so for freedom. I’m not here to debate ethics with you. I am more concerned about you two
getting yourselves in trouble. You were only supposed to be going into Liberator to play games.”
Sara broke her silence. “It’s all my fault. David and Grizzly were just playing cards until I came around. “
I put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, sis. Using the blank card as a backup plan was my idea. Heck, one time David tried to hack my code, and I ended up getting brainwashed by a giant bug. Long story. “
Sara smiled. “Sis? You called me sis…”
“I’m gonna miss you, okay. I figured I could call you sis at least once. “
Sara hugged me. We all said our goodbyes and left Sara and Magna to do what they needed to do to send her on her way. We went back to Dan’s place and put away our cards. We had dinner, and I went to bed. Dan and the Kid stayed up a bit longer so the Kid could tell him what happened. A few days passed, and one night David sent Dan off to get some pizza. David and I stayed home to organize our cards.
“You know, I talked to the Blu the other day. One thing still bothers her. If the Zeta Empire was using black Digitron, the lower level Digimon would not have gone berserk. In fact, only Omegamon Alter-B has gone berserk from Digitron.” David wondered out loud.
“Huh…“ I looked up from my pile of cards. “Didn’t Sara say the Gargomon she encountered seemed perfectly fine? If that’s the case, the Zeta Empire were deleting innocent Digimon just to keep their experiments secret. Wow… That’s messed up.”
“Messed up doesn’t cover it. It’s essentially a war crime. That’s part of the reason why my former commanding officer asked for a reduced sentence if he cooperated with the Elders.” Sara said, as he and Dan walked through the door with a box of pizza.
“Sara?! What are you doing here?” I gasped.
“Finding out the guy who trained you is a wanted criminal kind of makes you reconsider your job. Not to mention learning that there are an infinite number of worlds out there. It really makes you question if you are happy with the status quo. So, when Magna offered me the opportunity to study with him, I decided to take it.”
“What….” It took me a minute to process what Sara was saying, “Magna offered you…. wait…. YOU KNEW YOU WERE COMING BACK?!”
David laughed. “Yea, it was all planned out after we left the Megalithic Mainframe, but before Sara went back to her home world. Magna messaged me before she left. You had already gone to sleep. He’s going to loan her some of his old tomes and grimoires, and he’ll occasionally meet with her to teach her magic in person. The only issue Magna had was he wanted Sara to be partnered with a human while she was in the real world. “
“No way man. You already have a partner!”
Dan beamed with that big smile of his.” I could use a hand around the house. And now that it’s winter, you and David don’t like going on those long walks with me. Sara can keep me company instead! If David ever needed to borrow her for a battle or two, I certainly wouldn’t mind.”
“Seriously?! She’s going to be Dan’s partner?!”
“Those two always did like the cold. Also, I mean come on. Even though your crazy plan worked, it was a massive risk. We need to face it. We simply need to get better at the card game. Having Sara here to practice with is a great way for us to hone our skills.” David ruffled my ears.
“And you did all this without asking me?!”
Sara hugged me. “You said so yourself! I’m your sis. We knew you would be okay with the surprise!”
Great. Awesome. I got duped into having a sister!
….. I guess I’m glad she’ll be sticking around….
Until next time.
Grizzly
DedicatedGazi 